An autonomous or automated vehicle may generally be described as any type of vehicle, whether operating underwater, over land, or in the air, that is controlled, in whole or in part, by computerized control systems. Such vehicles typically operate unmanned—that is, without an operator physically present in the vehicle—and are used in a variety of applications where it may be too dangerous, uneconomical, or impractical to employ the conventional, manned vehicle counterpart. As technology advances, autonomous vehicles have found increasing use in civilian and military settings.
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), also known as unmanned underwater vehicles, may be used to perform a variety of underwater missions such as detecting and mapping submerged wrecks, rocks, and obstructions that pose a hazard to navigation for commercial and recreational vessels. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) may be used in a variety of applications where it is dangerous or impractical for humans to travel, such as over un-surveyed terrain, or through areas of hostile activity in military applications. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment or other payloads, including military ordinances.
A particular focus of research in autonomous or automated vehicles has been the systems and methods by which they are controlled during their operation. For example, with regard to UAVs, size and weight restrictions can limit the amount of equipment a UAV can carry for performing precision autonomous landings. Rather, current UAV's are designed to be crash resistant—i.e., they are not designed to be able to land at all, but rather to be “usable” subsequent to a crash landing. Despite this, greater than one third of UAV's may be damaged beyond repair during crash landing. At a price exceeding $50,000 per unit, it would be desirable to have a UAV capable of autonomous landing so as to avoid these repair/replacement costs. Other autonomous vehicles (AUVs, UGVs) may also encounter control problems during their operation, which would be benefited by improved autonomous control.